In 1978, I was introduced to
starship miniatures by an ad in the back of a kids magazine. I sent in my
50 cents and got back a whole new world of gaming. Starfleet Wars had it's
5 races of ships and was clearly influenced by Star Wars with the triangular
wedge ships for the Terrans and some of the fighter designs. There were also the
Stardate 3000 miniatures from Valiant and Trek miniatures from Star Fleet
Battles and much more to fuel my imagination. I got the Starfleet Wars starter box with
the rules
and
one Stellar Destroyer miniature from each fleet but I kept on looking at the
miniatures and wanting more but I was young and had no money and life went on.
Fortunately this line of miniatures never died and they did come back when I was
able to get all the miniatures I want.

From that start I kept an interest
in starships and space games but they were not always easy to find.
Starfire and Star Fleet Battles were easiest to find at game stores and Star
Trek Tactical Combat System had some great miniatures. I found a
reference to a game fromt UK in a magazine and ordered a copy of Full Thrust
from the game store and that opened up some doors to other gamers throughout
the world as the internet and email groups connected people with similar
niche interests like nothing else could before.

I still fall back on Starfleet Wars for my favorite
archtipical background: classic humans with the strong and agressive ships;
dangerous bug swarm with lots and lots of cheap ships; advanced bird race
with the best ships availble, but not many of them; secrative aquatic race
who are hard to see and find unless they want you to; and the agressive
carnivores who's only tactics are to get close to pound and attack.

"In
the galaxy there are five empires ranging from the powerful to the weak, the
numerous to the few, the conniving to the naive, the treacherous to the
unsuspecting. Two of these powers have been vying for control of the galaxy for
several centuries, the ‘Entomalians whose acknowledged ambition is complete
Galactic dominance and the Terran Federation whose wish it is to
"save" the galaxy from the other empires and bring the thousands of
wealthy independent planets under their control."

Starfleet Wars miniatures are currently available from
Monday Knight Productions as the Galactic Knights range. They have their own Galactic Knights
rules that have a similar background but I still preferr the original
background.

There are also a couple of
blogs out there that focus on Starfleet Wars so if you are interested in
learning more about Starfleet Wars and the miniatures, please check them
out.Super Galactic DreadnoughtStarfleet Wars

The
Terran Federation

Background"The Terran forces are relatively numerous, well armed, and
well protected. Their ships have been designed to chase the enemy and
destroy or cripple him, hence the majority of the armament is mounted forward.
With this in mind tactics dictate attacking an enemy from behind and below to
cripple the engines and weak bellies of their opponents. The well
developed assault forces on the carriers and battlecruisers plus the heavy
dreadnoughts have served the Terrans well. The Terran Federation has
been intact for centuries and has always managed to defend its territories."

Design Philosophy - Good balanced ships

Average hulls, Good Screens, Moderate Armor, Good Beam
Batteries, Heavy Weapon is the Pulse Torpedo, lots of fighters, very good PDS
coverage, good thrust. Few weapons if any fire aft.